Measurement of the quantum state of electronic wave packets

Abstract

A technique for determining the quantum state of electronic wave packets from probability distribution measurements is presented. Specifically, a measurement of the fractional probability in each of a wave packet's constituent eigenstates can be used in conjunction with a measurement of the wave packet's time-dependent probability distribution to recover the complex amplitude of each constituent eigenstate. The method is demonstrated for radial Rydberg wave packets using previously measured time-dependent probability distributions in coordinate and momentum space. By exploiting delay imaging techniques, it should be possible to retrieve the quantum state of wave packets in real time.